River Person

Tra la la. I am the riverman. Or am I the riverwoman...? It doesn't really matter. I love to ride in my boat. Would you care to join me?

— First interaction with the River Person

The River Person is a hooded figure who provides transportation services to Snowdin, Waterfall, and Hotland on their wooden boat for the Underground. The protagonist can request a ride to any of the locations above if the protagonist reaches Hotland on any route.

During the trip, they have a list of messages they can say at random, often being a hint to a secret or an allusion to something in the game, or just something cute. At least one hint – the hint to finding Temmie Village – is specifically scripted to occur.

"Tra la la. You can never have too many hot dogs... Sadly, this is not true."

If the protagonist buys a hot dog from Sans with a full inventory, he will place it on top of their head. He will continue to stack 30 hot dogs on their head before stopping, saying "sorry, thirty is the limit on head dogs."

Gallery

Trivia

Sometimes their boat has the face of a dog and runs on top of the water. This is possibly a reference to Mother 3 when Lucas rides his Running Table.

The River Person is likely based on Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx in the Greek Mythology.

The River Person's gender is not decided, as they even dismiss it as not mattering. However, their sprite name is spr_riverman, hinting that their gender may be male (or at least was intended to be, as the dialogue for the character could have been made after the sprite was named).

The River Person is used for public transport in the Underground, as implied by calling Papyrus and Undyne.